Alcoholism Support Group

Alcoholism is the continued consumption of alcoholic beverages, even when it is negatively affecting your health, work, relationships and life. If you think alcohol is causing you to lose control, it's time to seek help. Our group is a safe place to vent, check in, get back up if you fall, and reach sobriety.

Binge drinking

There is a new group called binge drinking..there are not many members since its a new group..but the binge drinkers want to know if they are alcoholics or just having a good time drinking..I think help is needed to show how dangerous binge drinking can be, with black outs, alcoholism, ruining your health, mental and physical..I think advice is in order for this group. so if anyone cares to help please look into this group. or should we just let them binge drink until they hit bottom and learn on their own..what is your opinion

Ulana, my view is this: Binge drinkers may be alcoholics or they may not be - the diagnostic criteria is the same whether a person is a binge drinker or a continuous drinker or top-up drinker.

I know many binge drinkers in AA who believed that they couldn't possibly be alcoholic because they weren't continuous drinkers.

The diagnostic criteria is as simple as this 'If when you honestly want to, you find you cannot quit ENTIRELY or, if when drinking you have little control over the amount you taker, you are probably alcoholic. If that be the case, you may be suffering from an illness only a spiritual experience will conquer.

The UK is renowned for it's 'binge-drinking' culture, yet the incidence of alcoholism within the general population is about the same as it is in populations where such drinking patterns do not exist - generally about 10-12%.

If people are just having a good time drinking why would they be starting a support group? To boast?? Seriously, if they are having a good time - that's cool but those who are alcoholic will have lost or be losing any connection between fun and drinking.

Binge-drinking may be harmful to the physical and mental health of those who indulge in it, but that doesn't mean that they are alcoholics.

This distinction is important because the solution to the two things are different.

serenity how could a binge drinker not be an alcoholic..mostly I just drank on weekend, so I didn't think I was an alcoholic..but I was ..no matter how I tried to deny it becasue I didn't drink everyday..but when I would drink I drank so much, I was a binge drinker on weekends only..what is the difference between a binge drinker and a alcoholic.,.I am alittle confused on what was your point

It's really simple - not all people who binge drink are alcoholic. Neither are all people who drink daily.

this is why I explained to you that the diagnostic criteria is the same. Sometimes, it's hard to see beyond our own experience of drinking.

Read again what i said about the binge-drinking culture in the UK - there are TV programmes showing people in horrible states of drunkenness who are not alcoholics. At some future point they will settle down and their drinking will naturally moderate.
About 10-12% of the people shown on those programmes will one day decide it's time to settle down and stop doing what they are doing, they will find that they cannot do it no matter how much they try. These are the alcoholics.

I'm a binge drinker now. It has progressed over the years. Just because you don't drink every day and maintain your drinking doesn't mean you're not alcoholic. I mean, I can't maintain my drinking. I can't drink a 12 pack and then go to bed. I start drinking and can't stop until the alcohol is gone, period. I'll drink all night and all into the next day, maybe into the next night and day if that's what it takes to drink all the alcohol. My hangovers are so horrible that it takes days to recover but as soon as I start to feel better, there I go again, drinking. There's different types of alcoholics and ways of drinking. Just because you don't drink everyday doesn't mean you're not bad. Actually it means you're probably worse. You can't work and drink, you can't manage your alcohol, you can't drink and then stop in the evening or whatever. I cannot stop once I start, period. I will drink until there's nothing left and I cannot get anyjmore. If that takes three days then I'm up for three days periodically, cause ofcourse I might pass out here and there, but I wont eat I wont care about sleep. I'll drink until it's gone. That's how I am now. If I take one beer, I wont stop if there's beer available. I wont stop. I will blackout, drink for days, whatever it takes. it's not cool. anyway, whatever, hugs to you my friend, hugs

I was a binge drinker and it nearly caused me to lose everything...binge drinkers are not exempt from being an alcoholic...

This topic is interesting to me....I hear Dr. Drew talking on the show he has....saying that is really harder for a binge drinker to addmit they are an alcoholic, or for them to stick to recovery....it sucks...
I do not think I quit in the early stages of me drinking career, rather it was progressed but I till never drank everyday or in the mornings, that was just a rule, I would surely be an alcoholic, like my father if I did that....I did not want to be like HIM, but my drinking progressed in so many other ways....usually involving getting so wasted that I blacked out, woke up feeling awful, full of regret, barely making it work the next day, I mean if I made it at all.....Then I would spend a day in bad, and repeat on that behavior, sometimes taking two days off.....I told myself i could stop, sometimes I could go a few days.....
But it was an awful way to live....I kept telling myself that I was young and just having fun....that is was okay to go out and party, to party period....BUT I woke up and now I 30 years old and it no longer cool to party and I am so far behind all my peers because I just &quot;wanted to have fun&quot;....I have wrinkles that i should not, my teeth are bad, I am not the pretty young one anymore....

Okay, dont know where that came from but I do know that binge drinking is really bad, it is scary, and dangerous....especially for women (as much as I hate to say that, it is....IMO)...You could not wake up from one of those blackouts, or hurt someone else, fall and hurt yourself....list goes on and on....
Binge drinking is SCARY....

I started out a binge drinker. Drank till it was all gone and I could get no more or I was too sick to get more. The last two years of my drinking, well, was one long &quot;binge&quot;, if I was awake, I drank. I would literally gag down the first one or two to stop the shakes, if I let it get to that point, was easier if i woke up and had a few every few hours. I was scared shitless that I would never stop or if I did that my heart would give out.
I think there are &quot;hard drinkers&quot;, but even they have healt effects from booze whetehr they ever cross that line or not. I think if you are asking if there's a problem, there's usually a problem.
Hope that helps, Marina

If only they can see where it leads to..to see the future. I got chronic pancreatitis from drinking and I didn't drink everyday, I was only a weekend binger..never saw myself as an alcoholic. Now for the rest of my life I am suffering chronic pain, abdominal pain, nausea..a doctor said to me take your meds and live w/ it..so why do I have to suffer for the rest of my life for being a weekend binger, am I being punished..it feels like it..so if only we can see the future from the result of binging

It's not how often, when, or how much you drink that classifies you as an alcoholic. Case in point: Jon would only drink on Fridays. He would stop at the local bar, have four beers, and be on his merry way. He realized that he had a problem after he was forced to give up his Friday pubstop. He had the shakes, couldnt control it. Our minds are conditioned to alcohol. This isnt the case with most, of course, but a good example of how little it takes to become an alkie.

The problem with binge drinking is that it increases ones tolerance and over time can change your body chemistry (brain)....all things that can lead one over the threshold to alcoholism. If someone chooses to drink the rule would be 1 drink every 1 hour, no more than 2 a night...to stay safe, and not to increase there tolerance.

theatre and I are there already. I'm having a very berry tea with crackers, cheese and cherry tomatoes and she's having a joint with some beer and we're both on really comfy recliners on thick pile carpet. we need some help with the decor if anyone is around??

I'm trying to exercise daily. I was doing fairly well until I sprained my ankle 2 weeks ago but now I'm getting back on the horse. Today I walked over a mile with my arm weights that are about 22lbs total. I was out of shape and it was hard on my arms. I also did my 30 situps. I'm also going to drink a lot of water and try to eat healthy. I do tend to have a sweet tooth but I'm cutting...

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